Social Media Resource Guide for Caregivers

Apps you should know about

(list and comments provided by Gaggle)

Afterschool: Advertised as “Funny Anonymous School News for Confessions and Compliments” in the Apple Store, this anonymous app by Ambient is much like Yik Yak and Whisper. This app allows sexual and graphic images.

Ask.fm: A Latvian-based social networking site where members interact by inviting others to ask anonymous questions

Bang with Friends: Criticized for not delivering what it promises for adults 18 and older. The premise of the website is to discretely set up sexual encounters with Facebook friends. Those friends only know about somebody’s interest when they reciprocate through the app.

ChatRoulette.com: “This website allows people to anonymously video chat online with anyone and without any security blocks or filters. Frequently people are unclothed in the chats.

Kik: An instant message service that also allows photo sharing. It is loaded with sex and porn spammers.

Meet Me: A social networking site that lets users tailor their searches for potential social contacts by age and geography.

Omegle: An instant message service that promises chats with random strangers. Also has a website that can be used instead of downloading the app.

Reddit Forums: Good and bad. Users are mostly anonymous.

Secret: App that openly suggests and allows users to “share with your friends, secretly. Speak freely.” Secret connects people anonymously through their address books.

Snapchat: App that allows users to send photo and videos that the app promises disappear within seconds.

Tagged.com: A social network that teenagers use for meeting new people that allows members to browse the profiles of other members, play games, and share tags and virtual gifts. Recently in the news for “sextortion.”

Tinder: A voting/photo-based location-sharing dating website often used for casual sex.

Video Kik: Send videos of any length on Kik Messenger. It is flooded with sex spammers and has become super easy for kids to access all kinds of porn.

Whisper: Intended for users age 17 and older, Whisper is an anonymous social “confessional” app that allows users to post whatever’s on their mind. Users type a confession, add a background image, and share it with a user community.

Yik Yak: Similar to ask.fm, but views are limited to those geographically close to the poster. Yik Yak is now blocked in 85% of all high schools, according to the company.

Other sites worth knowing about

YouNow: is an app that is a live video streaming broadcast to an audience they may or may not know.
Snaphack: when you receive a photo and anything received can be saved

Ok Cupid – Online dating site.

Facebook & Twitter – Kids might be using those for appropriate reasons.

Apps that allow kids to hide inappropriate apps

Keepsafe –photos are hidden – the icon can look like a calculator.

App lock – all apps that are being used are hidden

Monitoring resources:
@Sophie Takes a Selfie – author J.J. Cannon.

Gaggle is a Bloomington, Illinois-based company that provides educational products to school systems. The company also monitors what students are doing on social media.

Phone Sheriff” – you can monitor your child’s accounts including text messaging remotely.

Secure Teen” – it prevents cyber bullying and websites that children shouldn’t be on, you can check web history, where they have been and what apps they have been on.

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